Facing your demons
by bhut
Summary: The show's over, the villains are defeated, and Twilight is back to normal. Now it's night, and Discord is having a talking. With King Sombra. What is next?


**Facing your demons**

_Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, again._

…The moon was shining, the nightingales were singing, (the perpetum mobile engine was working, because Twilight could not manage sunrises & sunsets by herself right now), the plants were growing (and green), the dew was twinkling, the statue was just standing there, and so was Discord.

Wait, Discord?

Yes, Equestria's spirit of Chaos was also sitting in the palace's gardens, not spreading, well, chaos and discord, or anything else. No, he was actually doing something that was honestly hard, (for him) – sitting there in one spot and thinking hard. Considering that Discord had some form of ADD or another, (and boy, did Captain Obvious catch a lot of dissension from Equestria's spirit of Chaos, because Discorded hated at having this pointed out to him), this was quite an achievement by his standards.

"…This is quite an achievement by your standards," Sombra, currently not in his kingly regalia, commented to Discord as he popped over next to the dracoequus. "Usually you'd be zooming all over the place, like some crazy bird, or glooming menacingly, or looming, or just doing _something_, you know!"

Discord clutched his chest and collapsed, huffing weakly. His fellow Discord immediately popped over to him and gave him CPR, until Discord reviewed and sat back up. Sombra just stared impassively at the show.

"You're no fun," both Discords said as one, and then there was just one.

"No, really?" Sombra shot Equestria's spirit of Chaos a look. "Fair enough – after all, when _I_ am having fun, and everyone else weeping bitter tears from it, _I_ don't pretend to be just one of the lads as _you_ do."

"…Figured it out, have you?" Discord rubbed his neck. "If you're going to-"

"Please, the only one who was possibly giving you the possibility of a doubt was the young pony," Sombra jabbed one of his forelegs towards the statue. "Everyone else of us have heard enough about the _real_ Grogar to know that you weren't him."

"The _real_ Grogar is dead," Discord muttered, but quietly: away from his home base, at night, without any magical protections – safeguards, really - he did not truly want to mention _that _name loudly and willy-nilly.

"Willy-nilly?" Sombra replied calmly. "Oh, sure." He gave Discord a look. "That old warlock had been buried and done once every century, let alone every age, but somehow the rumors _always_ come back."

"I hate you," Discord muttered crossly.

"I know," Sombra nodded, "I know, and not just because I always beat you in backgammon. Thank the First World that I already had been blasted and banished once by alicorns and their Harmony, and knew how to survive the second time around. Otherwise, your other set of pawns just might've gotten me down for good."

"They weren't my pawns, they were my friends!" Discord glared. Again, Sombra was unaffected:

"Oh, _good_ – I was worried that it would be _hard_ to pin you _down_. Now all that is missing is the answer to the question: and what we were to you? Egg salad or chopping liver, with meshed-in onions?"

There was a pause. "…I don't know," Discord muttered. "I wanted- I wanted to be like Celestia, to do something for Equestria that would really resonate-"

"Then you should've just changed your gender," Sombra said flatly. "While I'm sure that Celestia had always had her own flaws, she, a, never just manipulated everyone around her, and b, she always had a concrete endgame in sight for her, while you never did. I don't know if you wanted to redeem us, or just have some smoked sturgeon in a horseradish sauce, but since you weren't truly and fully committed to either, you failed on both fronts!"

Discord stared hard at Sombra; the other male stared back just as hard. "This doesn't excuse what you did," Discord ground out.

"Most assuredly," oddly, though he was not wearing his royal regalia, Sombra did look rather regal here and now. "I knew that something was afoot, that something was off, but I still let it go and got carried away. Good thing that I did not have too many friends left at this point, or otherwise I would have had to apologize really hard to them… Oh wait, I still have some friends left, so I have to apologize really hard to them all the same, and maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to fix our friendship." He shifted his stance and looked at the statue. "And the same goes for all of you, especially _you_, Tirek, if those old rumors of you are true. You really got out of hoof, and now it's all upon you three!" He stood up and faced Discord once more. "And I must say to you, Discord – congratulations! You managed to get away scot-free – no one was able to connect you, the fake Grogar, and anyone else relating to this mess. You really should have been there, _again,_ completing the piece, as their spiritual inspirer – but you are not. You won again, so turn this frown upside down!" He reached out with his magic, forcing a smile upon Discord's face, (which currently had a look on it on par with some of the best of SpongeBob Squarepants' sad long faces), which immediately vanished with a snap as soon as Sombra's magic did. The snap sounded quite painful too.

In response, Discord began to grow until he towered over the trees, over the palace. "Aha," Sombra spoke with his best deadpan voice and facial expression. "This is how it goes? Help, help," he said in a lackluster voice that would have impressed even Maud Pie.

Discord's fist slammed downwards, hard, causing a crater in the garden's grounds. Sadly, Sombra by now was just a smoke cloud, circling around the now giant Discord, clearly unaffected by the actions of Equestria's spirit of Chaos. "Yes, very impressive," he told Discord as he circled around the latter's ears. "Color me sufficiently chastised and so I leave. Exeunt!" Despite those words, he still did one more rotation around Discord's face. "But remember, Equestria's Chaos – the Empty Smile has awakened deep beneath from all of this sound and fury, from all the brouhaha that has come from your 'master plan', and it is going to devour you for real!"

"Who?" Discord blinked, as he tried to follow Sombra.

"Oh, you know who," Sombra said faux-dismissively. "And then there's that guy."

"Who?" Discord blinked, as he followed Sombra and saw… an empty plinth. "Er, who's that?"

"_That_ is an empty plinth," Sombra replied, as he began to dissolve into the night's darkness, "and as for _who_ was standing there… you will see soon enough." He did a very good evil laughter. "See you around, Equestria's Chaos…or not, if you don't wise up!" And he vanished completely.

"Right," Discord muttered, as he began to do his own disappearing act. (He still avoided looking at the statue, though). "Now I know how Celestia and Luna felt like when I was around. Still, I have a new mystery to solve…" And he also vanished.

The sun rose. The birds began to sing. It was a new day.

The end?


End file.
